The diversity of transients from magnetar birth in core collapse supernovae
By B. Metzger, B. Margalit, D. Kasen, E. Quataert. 2015
221 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Strongly-magnetized, rapidly-rotating neutron stars are contenders for the central engines of both long-duration gamma-ray bursts (LGRBs) and hydrogen-poor super-luminous supernovae (SLSNe-I). Models for typical (~minute long) LGRBs invoke magnetars with high dipole magnetic fields (Bd > 1e15 G) and short spin-down times, while models for SLSNe-I invoke neutron stars with weaker fields and longer spin-down times of weeks. Here we identify a transition region in the space of Bd and birth period for which a magnetar can power both a long GRB and a luminous SN. In particular, we show that a 2 ms period magnetar with a spin-down time of ~1e4 s can explain the observations of both the ultra-long GRB 111209 and its associated luminous SN2011kl. For magnetars with longer spin down times, we predict even longer duration (~1e6 s) GRBs and brighter supernovae, a correlation that extends to Swift J2058+05 (commonly interpreted as a tidal disruption event). We further show that previous estimates of the maximum rotational energy of a proto-magnetar were too conservative and energies up to Emax ~1-2e53 erg are possible. The magnetar model can therefore comfortably accommodate the extreme energy requirements recently posed by the most luminous supernova ASASSN-15lh. The high ionization flux from a pulsar wind nebula powering ASASSN-15lh may lead to an "ionization break-out" X-ray burst over the coming months, which would be accompanied by an abrupt change in the optical spectrum. We conclude by briefly contrasting millisecond magnetar and black hole models for SLSNe and ultra-long GRBs.
Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5e5169a301ba695ed8f8766e2e044edbe4ad93e8
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In Astronomy and Astrophysics
Citations in the corpus
- The Magnetar Model for Type I Superluminous Supernovae. I. Bayesian Analysis of the Full Multicolor Light-curve Sample with MOSFiT (2017, methodology): “In contrast, the model of Kasen & Bildsten (2010) assumes an angle of 45°, while Metzger et al. (2015) use a force-free (rather than vacuum) definition of the spin-down time.”
- The Observer's Guide to the Gamma-Ray Burst-Supernova Connection (2016, background): “Several authors [36, 106, 107, 108, 146] modelled different phases of the entire ULGRB event to determine the ejecta mass (Mej), initial spin period (P ), and the initial magnetic field strength (B), with some general consensus among the derived values: Mej = 3− 5 M (for various values of the assume”
- Millisecond Magnetar Birth Connects FRB 121102 to Superluminous Supernovae and Long-duration Gamma-Ray Bursts (2017, methodology): “The rotational energy of a magnetar has been suggested as a power source for both LGRB jets (e.g. Usov 1992; Wheeler et al. 2000; Thompson et al. 2004; Bucciantini et al. 2008; Metzger et al. 2011) and SLSNeI (e.g. Kasen & Bildsten 2010; Woosley 2010; Metzger et al. 2014, 2015).”